Blaming “static” for write-in votes?
A story on News Channel 8‘s site talks about the DC primary woes back in September where votes magically appeared out of nowhere. You’ll love this one:
326 people voted at the Reeves Center precinct on primary election day in September. Their votes were captured on a computer cartridge, but the Board of Elections says when it put the cartridge into the citywide computer to be counted, 1,500 write in votes appeared from nowhere. The board completed its investigation of what might have happened and blames static electricity.
“One of the many possible causes could be an electric charge or static discharge,” said Errol Arthur, D.C. Board of Elections.
What, no swamp gas? Static…electricity. Are you kidding me? Static electricity certain can and does affect electronic gear, but its random energy tends to create random corruptions, not duplicates of ordered patterns. That someone can insert a data drive into a device, get a static arc, and populate the data contained on the device with 1500 more votes for a particular candidate is a notion that’s just one step shy of Baghdad Bob’s performance during the 2003 Iraq invasion. And note the phrasing Mr. Arthur uses: “One of the many possible causes could be…” Yeah, it could be cosmic rays, microscopic gremlins, or a nearby activation of an Infinite Improbability Drive, too. A more likely explanation, however, is deeply inadequate control of the data store.
I have said on many occasions that electronic voting can be secured and it can, no question. The crux of the situation isn’t technological, however, it’s procedural. That’s the part that likely fell apart in this case, not the tech being used. That a public official would actually consider making this explanation is just embarrassing.
